54(5 
D O L 
DOM 
vexillum has two callous knobs, oblong, pa- 
rallel, and compressing the alas below. There 
are 38 species, the most remarkable of which 
are : 1. The lablab, with a winding stalk, is 
a native of warm climates, where it is fre- 
quently cultivated for the table. Mr. Ilas- 
seiquist informs us, that it is cultivated in 
the Egyptian gardens, but is not a native of 
that country. The Egyptians make plea- 
sant arbours with it in their houses and gar- 
dens, by supporting the stem and leading it 
where they think proper. They not only 
support it with sticks and wood, but tie it 
with cords, by which means the leaves form 
an excellent covering, and afford an agree- 
able shade in sultry weather. 2. The soja, 
a native of Japan, where it is termed daidsu; 
and, from its excellence, mame ; that is, 
4 ‘ the legumen or pod,” by way of emi- 
nence. It grows with an erect, slender, and 
hairy stalk, to the height of about four feet. 
The leaves are like those of the garden 
kidney-bean. The flowers are of a blueish 
white, and produced from the bosom of the 
leaves, and succeeded by bristly hanging 
pods resembling those of the yellow' lupin, 
which commonly contain two, sometimes 
three, large white seeds. There is a variety 
of this kind, with a small black fruit, which 
was once employed in medicine. Kempfer 
affirms, that the seeds of this give relief in the 
asthma. This legumen is doubly' useful in 
the Japanese kitchens. It serves for the pre- 
paration of a substance named miso, that is 
used as butter ; and likewise a pickle cele- 
brated among them, and frequent also at our 
own tables, under the name of sooju or soy. 
To make the first, they take a measure of 
the beans produced by the plant : after boil- 
ing them to a proper degree of softness, 
they beat them into a paste ; incorporating 
with it a large quantity of common salt. 
They then add a certain preparation of rice 
named koos ; and having formed the whole 
into a mass, remove it into a wooden vessel, 
and, in about two months, it is fit for use. 
The koos gives it a grateful taste ; and the 
preparing of it, like the polenta of the Ger- 
mans, requires some experience./ To make 
sooju or soy, they take equal quantities of the 
same beans boiled, and of muggi, that is, 
barley or wheat roughly ground, and of com- 
mon salt. Having properly mixed the beans 
with the pounded corn, they keep it covered 
in a warm place, in order to ferment ; then 
putting the mass into a pot, they cover it with 
the salt, pouring over the whole two measures 
and a half of water. This they frequently 
stir for two or three months, at the end of 
which time, they filtrate and express the mass, 
and preserve the liquor in wooden vessels. 
The older it is, the better and the clearer ; 
and if made of wheat, it is the blacker. 
3. The pruriens, or cow-itch, is also a native 
of warm climates. It has a fibrous root, and 
an herbaceous climbing stalk, which is naked, 
dividing into a great number of branches ; 
and rises to a great height when properly sup- 
ported. The leaves are alternate and trilo- 
bate, rising from the stem and branches about 
12 inches distant from each other. - The foot- 
stalk is cylindrical, from 6 to 14 inches long. 
From the axilla of the leaf descends a pendu- 
lous solitary spike, from 6 to 14 inches long, 
covered with long blood-coloured papiliona- 
ceous flowers, rising by threes in a double 
alternate manner from small fleshy protu- 
berances, each of which is a short peuunculus 
DOM 
of three flowers. These are succeeded by 
leguminous, coriaceous pods, four or five 
inches long, crooked like an italic f; densely 
covered with sharp hairs, which penetrate the 
skin, and cause great itching. This will grow 
in any soil in those countries where it is a 
native : but it is generally eradicated from all 
cultivated grounds ; because the hairs from 
the pods fly with the winds, and torment every 
animal they happen to touch. If it was not 
for this mischievous quality, the beauty of its 
flowers would entitle it to a place in the best 
gardens. It flowers in the cool months, from 
September to March, according to the si- 
tuation. The spicula.% or sharp hairs, of this 
plant, have been long used in South America 
in cases of worms ; and have of late been 
frequently, and, as some writers have said, 
successfully employed in Britain for the like 
purpose. The spiculae of one pod mixed 
with syrup or melasses, and taken in the 
morning fasting, is a dose for an adult. 4. 
The dolichos lignosus is a handsome flower- 
ing shrub, introduced into our greenhouses, 
and easily propagated from seed, which it 
perfects in this country. 
DOLIOCARPUS, a genus of the polyan- 
dria monogynia class and order. The calyx 
is five-leaved ; corolla three-petalled, plait- 
ed; stigma subtrifid ; berry globular, crown- 
ed with the style, one-celled, two-seeded. 
There are three species, shrubs of Guianan 
DOLPHIN. See Delphixus. 
DOMBEYA, a genus of the class and 
order dicecia monadelphia. The male, calyx 
of the ament, scales ; corolla none ; anthers 
10 or 12, without filaments. Female, calyx 
ament, with many germs ; corolla none ; stig- 
ma bivalve, unequal ; seeds many, in a 
roundish strobile. There is one species, a 
tree of Chili. 
DOME. See Architecture. 
DOMESDAY , is a very antient record, 
made in William the Conqueror’s time, and 
now remaining in the exchequer, fair and le- 
gible, consisting of two volumes, containing a 
survey of all tiie lands in England. It was 
begun by five justices, assigned for that pur- 
pose in each county, in the year 1081, and 
finished in 1086. 
It is generally known, that the question 
whether lands are antient demense or not, is 
to be decided by the Domesday-book of 
William the Conqueror ; whence there is no 
appeal. And it is a book of that authority, 
that even the Conqueror himself submitted 
in some cases, wherein he was concerned, to 
be determined by it. 
DOMESTIC, in antiquity, was a particu- 
lar officer in the court of Constantinople. 
According to some this officer was one en- 
trusted to manage affairs of importance : 
others say the Greek domestic! were the same 
with the Roman comites ; and that they be- 
gan first to be used when count became a 
dignity: domestics therefore were such as 
served the prince in the administration of 
affairs, as well those of the family as the af- 
fairs of justice and the church. 
DOMINANT of a mode, in music, is 
that sound which makes a fifth to the final, 
or tonic. 
DOMINICAL tetter, in chronology, 
is that letter of the alphabet which points out 
in the calendar the Sundays throughout the 
year, thence also called S unday-letter. The 
distribution of days into weeks is made by 
the seven first letters of the alphabet A, B, C, 
D, E, F, G, beginning, at the first of Janu- 
ary, to place the letter A ; to the second of 
January B is joined; to the third C; and so 
on to the seventh, where G is figured; and 
then again beginning with A, which is placed 
at the eighth day, B will be at the ninth, C 
at the tenth, and so continually repeating the 
series of these seven letters, each day of the 
year has one of them in the calendar. By 
this means the last of December has the 
letter A joined to it, for if the 365 days,- 
which are in the year, are divided by seven, we 
shall have 52 weeks, and one day over. If 
there had been no day over, all the years 
would constantly begin on the same day of 
the week, and each day of a month would 
constantly have fallen on the same day of the 
week ; but now, since, besides the 52 weeks 
in the year, there is one day more, it happens, 
that on whatever day of the w eek the year 
begins, it ends upon the same day, and the 
next year begins with the following day. 
The letters being ranked in this order, that 
letter which answers to the first Sunday of 
January, in a common year, will shew all the 
Sundays throughout the year, and to what- 
ever days in the rest of the months, that let- 
ter is put, these days are all Sundays. If the 
j first day of January be on a Sunday, the 
next year will begin on Monday, and the 
Sunday will fall on the seventh day, to which 
is annexed the letter G, which therefore will 
be the Sunday letter for that year : the next 
year beginning oil. Tuesday, the first Sunday 
will fall on the sixth of January, to which is 
adjoined the letter F, which is the Sunday 
letter for tliat year ; and in the same manner, 
for the next following, the dominical letter 
will be E ; and so on. By this means the 
Sunday letters will go on in a retrograde or- 
der, viz. G, F, E, D, C, B, A. But because 
every fourth year consists of 366 days, the 
series of letters will be interrupted, and the 
order will not return till twenty-eight years, 
or four times seven ; and hence arises the cy- 
cle of 28 years. 
Thus, if in a leap year the first of Ja- 
nuary is Sunday, and consequently the do- 
minical letter A, the twenty-fourth day of 
February will fall on a Friday, and the 
twenty-fifth on a Saturday ; and since both 
these days are marked in the calendar with 
the letter F, the following day, which is Sun- 
day, will be marked with G, which letter will 
mark out all the Sundays, and consequently 
be the dominical letter, the remaining part of 
the year; and hence it is that every leap 
year has two dominical letters, the first of 
which serves from the beginning of the year 
to the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth day of 
February, and then the other takes place and 
servos for the rest of the year. 
The intercalary day is placed between the' 
twenty-third and twenty-fourth days of Fe- 
bruary, and so makes two twenty -fourths of 
February, which in the calendar are esteem- 
ed one and the same day, and have the same 
letter affixed to them ; but by our way of 
reckoning they are called the twenty-fourth, 
and twenty-fifth days of February. 
For finding the dominical letters, reject the 
figures or cyphers to the place of hundreds . 
in the given year ; divide the remaining fi- 
gures or cyphers by 4; from this quotient 
subtract 1, and this number subtract from 
the hundred years; and then this last re- 
mainder taken from the least number of se- 
vens possible, leaves a number which uv t 
